“Don’t you trust me?” It’s a routine question from the man they call Boss, a ruthless character operating at the lower levels of the immigrant trade in Taiwan, adopted home of director Chiang Wei Liang. Nobody trusts Boss (Daniel Hong Yu-Hong), least of all his Thai sidekick Oom (Wanlop Rungkumjad). Perhaps because he is decent and reliable, Oom has been charged with keeping the other workers in their miserable hostel in order. It falls to him to explain why Boss’ own boss, the vile Brother Te, has failed to pay anybody their wages.
Fairly predictably, nobody trusts Oom, either. Oom works as a carer for disabled people whose families are too poor or too mean to pay professionals. If he is alone in a workplace, he is locked in. Like everyone else, he has surrendered his passport and never been paid. They are often hungry. Meals in the...
Fairly predictably, nobody trusts Oom, either. Oom works as a carer for disabled people whose families are too poor or too mean to pay professionals. If he is alone in a workplace, he is locked in. Like everyone else, he has surrendered his passport and never been paid. They are often hungry. Meals in the...
- 5/22/2024
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
The social mistreatment of caregivers is interrogated in indie film “Mongrel,” which will debut at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.
Written and directed by Chiang Wei Liang, “Mongrel” follows Oom (Wanlop Rungkumjad), a professional caregiver who has no papers or formal training but is good at caring for the elderly and disabled. When his situation as a caregiver in the mountains becomes too much for him, he has to choose between survival or dignity.
Kuo Shu-Wei and Atchara Suwan also star.
Chiang told IndieWire that the inspiration for “Mongrel” came from his own personal experiences working as a caregiver in Taiwan.
“The film came from a convergence of personal experiences and societal observations,” he said. “My own journey as a caregiver, alongside encounters with migrant caregivers, laid the groundwork.”
In a press statement, Chiang reflected on how “Mongrel” is unfortunately a universal story that enters on the “precarious, invisible lives of undocumented migrant workers,...
Written and directed by Chiang Wei Liang, “Mongrel” follows Oom (Wanlop Rungkumjad), a professional caregiver who has no papers or formal training but is good at caring for the elderly and disabled. When his situation as a caregiver in the mountains becomes too much for him, he has to choose between survival or dignity.
Kuo Shu-Wei and Atchara Suwan also star.
Chiang told IndieWire that the inspiration for “Mongrel” came from his own personal experiences working as a caregiver in Taiwan.
“The film came from a convergence of personal experiences and societal observations,” he said. “My own journey as a caregiver, alongside encounters with migrant caregivers, laid the groundwork.”
In a press statement, Chiang reflected on how “Mongrel” is unfortunately a universal story that enters on the “precarious, invisible lives of undocumented migrant workers,...
- 5/14/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Paris-based sales company Alpha Violet has come on board as representative of “Mongrel,” the debut feature of Taiwan-based Singaporean filmmaker Chiang Wei Liang. The film will have its world premiere next month at Cannes in the Directors Fortnight section.
Set in the mountains of Taiwan, “Mongrel” stars Thai actor Wanlop Rungkumjad as Oom, an undocumented migrant and on-demand caregiver for rural families, who struggles to preserve his humanity as he cares for the elderly and disabled.
Rungkumjad is joined by newcomer Kuo Shu-wei, who plays Hui, a patient with whom Oom develops a bond. On hearing of the film’s Cannes selection, Kuo said, “I never thought this film would have the opportunity to be seen by so many people. As I live with athetoid cerebral palsy, we worked hard to achieve this. Hui is a character whose abilities are weaker than mine, so I thought of the friends I...
Set in the mountains of Taiwan, “Mongrel” stars Thai actor Wanlop Rungkumjad as Oom, an undocumented migrant and on-demand caregiver for rural families, who struggles to preserve his humanity as he cares for the elderly and disabled.
Rungkumjad is joined by newcomer Kuo Shu-wei, who plays Hui, a patient with whom Oom develops a bond. On hearing of the film’s Cannes selection, Kuo said, “I never thought this film would have the opportunity to be seen by so many people. As I live with athetoid cerebral palsy, we worked hard to achieve this. Hui is a character whose abilities are weaker than mine, so I thought of the friends I...
- 4/16/2024
- by Patrick Frater and Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
“Mongrel,” a Taiwan-set drama film that has done the round of project markets, will appear at the International Film Festival Rotterdam as a work in progress.
In addition to the screening of 15 minutes of footage, Taiwan-based Singaporean director Chiang Wei Liang has confirmed the film’s cast as being headed by Thai actor Wanlop Rungkumjad alongside Taiwanese female actor Lu Yi-ching and rapper Hong Yu-hong from Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One. Other key cast include Atchara Suwan (“By the Time It Gets Dark”), and Guo Shu-wei in his debut role.
Set in the mountains of Taiwan, the film follows Rungkumjad’s character Oom, an undocumented migrant and on-demand caregiver for rural families, who struggles to preserve his humanity as he cares for the elderly and disabled.
The project, which represents Chiang’s debut feature film, was previously developed at TorinoFilmLab ScriptLab, Talents Tokyo and the Cannes Residence, where it received the Cnc Development Award.
In addition to the screening of 15 minutes of footage, Taiwan-based Singaporean director Chiang Wei Liang has confirmed the film’s cast as being headed by Thai actor Wanlop Rungkumjad alongside Taiwanese female actor Lu Yi-ching and rapper Hong Yu-hong from Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One. Other key cast include Atchara Suwan (“By the Time It Gets Dark”), and Guo Shu-wei in his debut role.
Set in the mountains of Taiwan, the film follows Rungkumjad’s character Oom, an undocumented migrant and on-demand caregiver for rural families, who struggles to preserve his humanity as he cares for the elderly and disabled.
The project, which represents Chiang’s debut feature film, was previously developed at TorinoFilmLab ScriptLab, Talents Tokyo and the Cannes Residence, where it received the Cnc Development Award.
- 1/18/2024
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
By Siria Falleroni
Winner of the “New Currents Award” at the Busan International Film Festival (2012), “36” is Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's brilliant feature film debut. It also won the “New Asian Cinema” section of the Five Flavours Asian Film Festival in Warsaw, the “New Talent Award” prize at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, and the “Best Director” award at the Cinemanila International Film Festival.
The story revolves around Sai – played by Koramit Vajrasthira – a location scout whose job is to catch potential settings in which to shoot movies with her digital camera. One day, her career becomes intertwined with that of artistic director Oom, portrayed by Wanlop Rungkamjad. The two will not only establish a professional collaboration but also a genuine relationship that lies between love and friendship. Photography surely is the common thread that runs through both of their lives. Oom likes to capture people on film but does not like being photographed,...
Winner of the “New Currents Award” at the Busan International Film Festival (2012), “36” is Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's brilliant feature film debut. It also won the “New Asian Cinema” section of the Five Flavours Asian Film Festival in Warsaw, the “New Talent Award” prize at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, and the “Best Director” award at the Cinemanila International Film Festival.
The story revolves around Sai – played by Koramit Vajrasthira – a location scout whose job is to catch potential settings in which to shoot movies with her digital camera. One day, her career becomes intertwined with that of artistic director Oom, portrayed by Wanlop Rungkamjad. The two will not only establish a professional collaboration but also a genuine relationship that lies between love and friendship. Photography surely is the common thread that runs through both of their lives. Oom likes to capture people on film but does not like being photographed,...
- 4/11/2023
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
Jakrawal Nilthamrong’s sophomore feature film could have easily been called something like “The Anatomy of Silence” since dialogues appear only scarcely, and when they do, they don’t contribute much to the film’s plot with only one lonely exception. When we are finally faced with a longish conversation between the father and daughter in which the world religions are being discussed, it doesn’t even matter that the man doesn’t get all facts right (Christians believe in Jehova) because he makes a point about the humankind being stuck in its systems of beliefs regardless of race, nation or religion. It’s a scene that bears a huge importance for the storyline, because being stuck is what the young woman Maem (Prapamonton Eiamchan) listening to her father, will eventually be.
“Anatomy of Time” Screened at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
“Wela-Anatomy of Silence” is a film that relies...
“Anatomy of Time” Screened at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
“Wela-Anatomy of Silence” is a film that relies...
- 11/23/2021
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
Jakrawal Nilthamrong’s sophomore feature film could have easily been called something like “The Anatomy of Silence” since dialogues appear only scarcely, and when they do, they don’t contribute much to the film’s plot with only one lonely exception. When we are finally faced with a longish conversation between the father and daughter in which the world religions are being discussed, it doesn’t even matter that the man doesn’t get all facts right (Christians believe in Jehova) because he makes a point about the humankind being stuck in its systems of beliefs regardless of race, nation or religion. It’s a scene that bears a huge importance for the storyline, because being stuck is what the young woman Maem (Prapamonton Eiamchan) listening to her father, will eventually be.
“Wela-Anatomy of Silence” is a film that relies on the performance of its four principal actors playing an...
“Wela-Anatomy of Silence” is a film that relies on the performance of its four principal actors playing an...
- 9/17/2021
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
When the Thai actress Prapamonton Eiamchan got her first role in Prabda Yoon’s entangled, but visually strong live-action movie “Motel Mist” in 2016, she was a design student curious to experience something new. Five years and three other feature films later, she is on her way to become a star. With her latest role in Jakrawal Nilthamrong’s drama “Wela-Anatomy of Time” which has just had its world premiere in Orizzonti competition of Venice Film Festival, she proves to be the name to watch for.
The film focuses on one woman whose loyalty to a rough husband with dark past at first seems incomprehensible. We experience Maem borh as a young person (Eimchan) and as the elderly lady (Thaveeratana Leelanuja) in different phases of submission to the man she fell for, and while she mainly remains silent, her actions are louder than vocalized thoughts or emotions, although difficult to explain.
The film focuses on one woman whose loyalty to a rough husband with dark past at first seems incomprehensible. We experience Maem borh as a young person (Eimchan) and as the elderly lady (Thaveeratana Leelanuja) in different phases of submission to the man she fell for, and while she mainly remains silent, her actions are louder than vocalized thoughts or emotions, although difficult to explain.
- 9/17/2021
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Phuttiphong Aroonpheng's Manta Ray, which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from September 26 – October 25, 2019 in Mubi's Debuts series.The debut feature of writer-director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng, Manta Ray is an intoxicating and ostensibly oblique commentary on a pressing contemporary issue that weaves a genuinely otherworldly and bewitching spell. Evocative of the sensual and woozy aesthetic of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, comparisons to whom Aroonpheng, who cites David Lynch and especially Eraserhead (1977) as his rudder, will no doubt very quickly tire, it’s a film whose spirituality gently masks a genuine interrogation of more corporeal matters. Though initially beginning as a dreamlike allegory, the kernel of the film is the plight of Rohingya refugees and migrant workers, a great number of whom perished in the Moei River, a small body of water marking a frontier between Thailand and Myanmar.
- 9/18/2019
- MUBI
Halfway through Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s hypnotic feature debut, Manta Ray, two men put up Christmas lights around an unadorned riverside shack. They’ve known each other for a while, but seldom speak: one (Wanlop Rungkumjad) is an unnamed Thai fisherman with dyed blonde hair; the other (Aphisit Hama) is a mute man whom the fisherman has found agonizing in a remote stretch of mangroves by the border with Myanmar, and has taken home to look after. The lights are to serve as decoration for a party the two are throwing that same night, but the sun is still high on the horizon; smiling ecstatically at the makeshift disco, the fisherman suggests the two should nap to make the day go by faster. And so they do.
Watching the two young men fall asleep side by side and later sway to a mesmeric electronic tune, their eyes agleam with happiness as...
Watching the two young men fall asleep side by side and later sway to a mesmeric electronic tune, their eyes agleam with happiness as...
- 12/21/2018
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
The 75th Venice International Film Festival has finally announced the line-up in a press conference in Rome, hosted by the President of the Biennale di Venezia Paolo Baratta and by the Director of the Cinema department Alberto Barbera.
The Venice International Film Festival has been welcoming in the past many Asian movies especially under the previous Director Marco Muller (2004-2011), a dedicated advocate and promoter of Asian Cinema, but this year the Asian presence is particularly poor. A bit surprising after the success in Cannes of Palme d’Or director Hirokazu Kore’eda with “Shoplifters” and Lee Chang-dong with “Burning”.
Only one film – Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto’s new movie “Zan” – is in the Official Competition and few more “usual suspects” are scattered in the other sections. Chinese director Tsai Ming-Liang – a regular of the festival – is in the Out of Competition Section with his “Ni De Lian“, where other...
The Venice International Film Festival has been welcoming in the past many Asian movies especially under the previous Director Marco Muller (2004-2011), a dedicated advocate and promoter of Asian Cinema, but this year the Asian presence is particularly poor. A bit surprising after the success in Cannes of Palme d’Or director Hirokazu Kore’eda with “Shoplifters” and Lee Chang-dong with “Burning”.
Only one film – Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto’s new movie “Zan” – is in the Official Competition and few more “usual suspects” are scattered in the other sections. Chinese director Tsai Ming-Liang – a regular of the festival – is in the Out of Competition Section with his “Ni De Lian“, where other...
- 7/31/2018
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
The Los Angeles Film Festival has announced the world premiere of Richard Linklater's Bernie as the opening night film for the 2011 festival.
The film will kick off the festival on June 16 at Regal Cinemas Stadium 14 at L.A. Live. It is written by Skip Hollandsworth and director Linklater and stars Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey.
The film follows a beloved mortician (Black) from a small Texas town, even winning over the town's richest, meanest widow (MacLaine). Even after Bernie commits a horrible crime, people still will not utter a bad word against him.
"We're thrilled to be opening the Festival with the world premiere of this delicious black comedy - a treat from one of the most original and exciting voices in independent film, Richard Linklater," said Festival director Rebecca Yeldham. "With its fabulous all-star cast, Bernie is a perfect stage setter for the incredible line-up of...
The film will kick off the festival on June 16 at Regal Cinemas Stadium 14 at L.A. Live. It is written by Skip Hollandsworth and director Linklater and stars Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey.
The film follows a beloved mortician (Black) from a small Texas town, even winning over the town's richest, meanest widow (MacLaine). Even after Bernie commits a horrible crime, people still will not utter a bad word against him.
"We're thrilled to be opening the Festival with the world premiere of this delicious black comedy - a treat from one of the most original and exciting voices in independent film, Richard Linklater," said Festival director Rebecca Yeldham. "With its fabulous all-star cast, Bernie is a perfect stage setter for the incredible line-up of...
- 5/30/2011
- by alyssa@mediavine.com (Alyssa Caverley)
- Reel Movie News
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